BATTLING THE FORCES OF EVIL

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

So what kind of germ person are you? In my household, we have the full spectrum. We have my wife, who is a avid hand washer and prefers not to open doors or touch anything in public spaces. In fact, in the wintertime, what you'll see is if she opens a door at a Starbucks or a Target, she will put her hand in her pocket and reach for the door to pull it. So most of the time when we're together, I open the door because I'm on the other extreme in which I am not all that afraid of germs, and in fact sort of embrace the idea that if you expose yourself to germs, it helps build your immunity. And it, at times, candidly, can go too far, in which, you know, if something hits the floor, ten second rule, maybe a quick rinse under some water, and I think it's still fine.

Now, here's the reality. Regardless of which side you are on, germs are real, even though you can't always see them. And washing our hands, as the CDC will tell us, helps us fight disease. And it's also true that exposure to some germs helps us build immunity. Both those things are real. Unless we acknowledge the reality of germs, we can't really engage them. We can't resist them, and we can't fight them.

So what I want to talk to you about today are the spiritual forces of evil. And I think, as the scriptures talk about, There are forces of evil, sin, death, and Satan. And these forces of evil are at work in the world. And unless we're willing to acknowledge them, even though sometimes I think acknowledging them makes us uncomfortable and they're a little bit strange in certain ways, it actually helps us to fight them and resist them.

So in Mark 8, Jesus is telling his disciples that he has to go to the cross, that he has to suffer greatly under the scribes and the Pharisees and the other leaders of the day, and that he will die and then rise again. Peter is very upset by this, and so Peter says, hey, that's not going to happen. Jesus pulls Peter aside and says, get behind me, Satan.

And so through this passage, I want to highlight three ways. that I think sin, death, and Satan are active forces in the world and how we should engage them, how we should acknowledge them and resist them to do battle against them.

So sin. What the scriptures talk about as sin is sin is our tendency to try to find life in things that bring us death. And sin exists inside of us. It exists in between our relationships. It ends up in our systems and ultimately affects the way people use power as well. And what sin does is it corrupts. It twists it just a little bit so something that is good becomes skewed. And so if you think about it in yourself, it's your sort of false belief that if you had the right amount of money and the right job, that everything would be great, that you could have more power and control.

And then if the world just operated the way you wanted it to operate, then everything would be fine. It's your tendency to believe that the problem always lies in someone else's court versus your own. In our relationships, it's the things that cause division. That's why Paul says, be careful not to devour one another.

In our systems, it's how we can end up buying a product at a store and not realizing that we're actually helping fund humanitarian slavery in the midst of it. And as it relates to power, we see that sometimes people take power. And sin mutates it to hold on.

This was all happening in Pharisees and the leaders of Israel. And the problem was, is they were not using their relational and system and authority in ways that was healthy. And so sin manifested there. Christ comes, suffers under it to defeat it. And so for you and I, what we want to do is we want to be aware. Just like we're aware that germs are all around us, we want to be aware that sin is all around us.

And to combat that, We want to grow in character, fight for justice, and cultivate communities of grace. Growing in character in things like love and mercy and gentleness and kindness. These are the kinds of things that the scriptures call us to, that that's who we're to be. And so we have to do that work and pick up that work and pursue it in order to fight the evil of sin.

At the same time, we have to recognize that the way sin operates in the world is it creates injustice. So we want to be a people that fight for justice. for justice.

And finally, because we know that sin is at work in ourselves, in our relationships, and in our systems, we need to cultivate communities of grace, meaning we have to be able to offer forgiveness. We have to do the work of reconciliation, because those are the things that are going to help us fight and do battle with these, this evil force of sin.

So let me ask you, where in your life, perhaps, Is sin blocking the expansion of God's kingdom? Maybe it's in a relationship, maybe it's in yourself. Take a moment, reflect on that. How might you battle back by growing in character, seeking justice, or helping to create a healthier community around you in your family or your workplace or wherever you might live on your day to day.

The second force that I want to talk about is the, is the force of death. Death is an enemy of God, is what the scriptures say. Christ has come so that we might have life and have it abundantly, but the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. The force of death, the emptiness and waste of it, shows up in our lives in all kinds of ways. Certainly, there's the jarring loss of people we love, there's the acknowledgement of our own immortality, and while often we try to hide from death, death Death shows up for each of us, but it's not something we have to be afraid of.

What we see is that death is conquered by the life of resurrection. And so in Jesus willingness to go to the cross, Jesus defeats death through death. And that tells us two things. One, death is not the ultimate final word, and so we don't have to be afraid of it anymore, even though it is a force that is at work in our life.

And two, that the way we're gonna conquer it is through living the resurrection and proclaiming the res resurrection. So we gather together on church and we sing. We're, we're singing and praising the hope we find in Christ, in the way that he brings resurrection to the world and to us. Additionally, we wanna live that in our homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces.

We want to cultivate that despite setbacks and challenges and failures. That we get up again, and we recreate, and we hope and pray and yearn to see new life that shows up, even after death. The final force I want to talk to you about is the force of Satan. Now a lot of times when we talk about Satan, we think of the Red Devil, and that's frankly not all that helpful.

Satan in the scriptures, translated directly, is the accuser. And so in this way, we see force, whether you think of it as a person or a personification of evil. It's a force that questions the goodness of God and tells us to go a different way. We see this in the garden. We see it with Job. We see it with Satan as he is tempted.

And, but then we also even see it in this way in that Jesus tells Peter that he is Satan. In that moment, Peter is trying to block the progress of the kingdom of God. Peter is blocking Christ's necessity of serving and sacrificing. And so he says, get behind me, Satan. So I think the best way to think about Satan and demons is that it is a force that is questioning God's goodness and trying to draw us away from good and towards evil.

And that force exists. It's what I think tips people to destructive behavior. It's a force that tips nations into war and genocide. And so we want to acknowledge that that force is out there questioning the goodness of God and questioning whether or not God's way is the way that brings life. And what we see is that the way that you combat that is through service and sacrifice.

That's what Christ does. Christ says, no, no, don't block me from service and sacrifice. You have to release me to it because that's how evil is defeated. And so we want to be the same kind of people that resist evil by offering ourselves in service and sacrifice.

As you go out this week, remember that just as there are germs around you that you have to be cognizant of and aware of, despite the fact that you can't see them, there are the forces of sin and death and Satan at work, trying to draw you and woo you away from the life that you find in Christ.

But what I want for you and what I want for myself and for our church is that we resist, that we engage by developing in character and fighting for justice and cultivating communities of grace and declaring hope in the face of death and being aware that there's always this accuser that's questioning God's goodness, but instead we're people who proclaim it and then serve and sacrifice for the good of the world. Just like we see in Christ. I hope you have a great week. We'll see you soon.